International Astrobiology Workshop 2013 (2013) 1049.pdf OVERVIEW OF JAPAN'S MELOS1 MARS MISSION: MARS EXPLORATION FOR LIFE/ORGANISM SEARCH. T. Satoh1, T. Kubota, K. Fujita, T. Okada, T. Iwata, T. Imamura, A. Oyama, N. Ogawa, K. Yamada (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), H. Miyamoto (University of Tokyo), A. Yamagishi (Tokyo University of Life and Pharmacy), G. Komatsu (IRSPS), T. Usui (Tokyo Institute of Technology), G. L. Hashimoto (Okayama University), H. Demura (Aizu University), H. Senshu (Chiba Institute of Technology), S. Sasaki (Osaka University), and G. Ishigami (Keio University). 1ISAS/JAXA, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Chuo-ku, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-5210, Japan (sa- [email protected]). Introduction: Mars is an attractive object for ex- done by active-guided descent under speed of super- plorations (scientific, robotic, or human in coming dec- sonic or sub-sonic, an engineering challenge. The Mar- ades). Japan had a Mars exploration mission, NOZOMI tian atmosphere is sometimes saide to be "too thin to be (launched 1998), of which primary scientific objectives useful but too thick to ignore". MELOS1's engineering was escaping atmosphere from Mars. NOZOMI was team members are working hard to overcome this prob- unsuccessful (sad to say) and we did not have a chance lem with high confidence. to visit the red planet since then. After having our first The system is currently so designed that we can land Venus mission, AKATSUKI (launched 2010), there a 60-kg rover on the Martian surface. have been planning activities for "next" Mars missions. On Mars: The rover's nominal life time, though Through intensive discussion among researches of vari- still TBD, may be 60 to 120 Martian days during which ous areas, we have recently reached a conclusion about she performs life and organism detection experiments. the aim of our MELOS1 mission [1]. It is The 60-kg rover will host 6 to 7 kg of science payload. "Life/Organism Search" which can be compared to what The main instrument, of course, is Life Detection Mi- Americans or Europeans will do in upcoming missions croscope (LDM) [7]. To best utilize 8 sample contain- (ESA's ExoMars [2] or NASA's Mars2020 [3]). ers of LDM, the rover will traverse for 5 to 6 days to a "MELOS" in MELOS1 is an acronym of "Mars Explo- new location. At one place, the onboard instruments ration for Life/Organism Search". will be used to decide from where we pick up the sam- When and How: ESA will launch a series of Ex- ple (may take a few days for this). Then, scoop and test oMars missions: an orbiter in 2016 and a rover in 2018. will be performed for one full day. This cycle requires NASA, on the other hand, will search for signs of "past" up to 10 days per sample. During the mission's life time lives with a rover, Mars 2020, build based on success- of 90 days, we can utilize all 8 sample containers. ful (in engineering aspects, at least) Curiosity rover [4]. More Future: It is imaginable that the entire world Because the area of Mars is about the same as the will be shocked and changed if ANY sign of life on earth's continents, too wide to cover with just a handful Mars is discovered. After MELOS1, if successful, we of landing probes, it is necessary that as many places as should then plan missions that give us more detailed possible should be visited via international collabora- data to study what kind of lives they are on Mars and tion. Japan should play a role in this and the best way to probably on othe worlds in the universe. This should be do so is to send a rover equipped with a high-sensitivity the dawn of "generalized" biology. life and organism detector. The timing should not be too References: far from ExoMars or Mars2020, of course. [1] Satoh, T., et al.: MELOS1 Mars Landing Explora- We, therefore, propose a rover mission for early tion Plan, Presented at JPGU2013 (May 2013). 2020's. The launch vehicle is assumed to be H-IIA 202. [2] ExoMars: http://exploration.esa.int/mars/. The entire system consists of an entry-descent-langind [3] Mars2020: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mars2020/. (EDL) module and a cruise stage, weighing some 800 [4] Curiosity: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/. kg or so. After departing from the earth, the cruise stag- [5] Fujita, K., et al.: Design Study of Mars EDL De- er will generate necessary electric power with its solar- monstrator for MELOS Mission, Presented at array panels. The power covers communication to the ISTS2013 (June 2013). earth and data handling, the attitude control system, the [6] Ishigami, G., et al.: 'Feasibility Study of a Small, heat-managing system, and the trajectory control ma- Lightweight Rover for Mars Surface Exploration, neuvers. When approaching Mars, the EDL module will Presented at ISTS2013 (June 2013). be detached and enter the Mars atmosphere [5]. [7] Yamagishi, A., et al: MELOS Life Search Plan: To efficiently search for life or organism, the probe Search for Microbes on the Mars Surface with Spe- should land on very specific place where remote obser- cial Interest in Methane-oxidizing Bacteria, Pre- vations strongly indicate there should be something. sented at ISTS2013 (June 2013). This requires a "high-precision" landing that can be .